Men Killed Were From Canaveral Theory: 2 Were Shot Before Being Set Afire

May 20, 1986|By Cory Jo Lancaster and Gina Thomas of The Sentinel Staff

TITUSVILLE — Deputies identified the burned bodies of two Cape Canaveral men Monday who they believe were shot to death in a Merritt Island house, taken to Osceola County and set afire.

The two men found burning Saturday on the Deseret Ranch in northeast Osceola County were Floyd Allan Breckenridge, 31, and Patrick Joseph Haddenman, 32, both of 413 Lincoln Ave., Cape Canaveral.

Autopsies on the men showed Monday they were shot with a .45-caliber handgun, said Brevard Sheriff's Cmdr. Speedy DeWitt. Breckenridge was shot twice in the back and once in the head, and Haddenman was shot once in the head, DeWitt said. No motive for their deaths is known, he said.

Investigators said they believe the two men were killed Friday night at 465 S. Banana River Drive, Merritt Island, then taken to Osceola County in a 1977 Dodge pickup that was found near the bodies, Dewitt said.

Court records filed Monday in Osceola County listed the truck's owner as Robert A. Smith, 37, who lives at the Merritt Island address.

A search of the house Monday afternoon showed that the men ''in all probability died there,'' DeWitt said, but he would not say what was found in the small, one-story house.

Police say they have been unable to find Smith.

A truck driver told Osceola deputy sheriffs that he helped a man push the pickup out of the middle of Nova Road, near where the bodies were found, and gave him a ride to Interstate 95 and State Road 520 in Brevard County about 4:30 a.m. Saturday, records show.

Truck driver Mark Moats told Osceola deputies that the man appeared to have an injured leg and his pants were soaked with what smelled like gasoline.

In the pickup, deputies found two gas cans, two pairs of blue jeans and a rug. Blood was found on the inside of the truck and on the outside near the tailgate, records show.

A tow-truck driver told investigators he received a telephone call about 5 a.m. Saturday from a man who wanted his truck towed to Wholesale Tires in Cocoa, records show. The driver, Byron Curtis, also said he saw blood on the truck.

The Osceola Sheriff's Department began investigating the case, but turned it over to Brevard investigators Monday because the men appeared to have been killed in Brevard.